SHADES OF GREEN at Walt Disney World Resort Information & Questions

[jeff_h]

How does SOG and EMH work for evening hours? I have stayed at SOG several years ago and then all you had to do is show the room key to get in for early EMH or to get something that showed you could stay in the park for evening hours. This was before the arm bands were prominent. From what I can tell they now scan your armbands to tell if you can stay in the park for evening EMH. Will we have to show the room key every time or is there a way they can add that information to arm bands or what?

Keep your green & white bus pass with you as that is how you show that you are staying at SOG and the dates are valid - they can't scan the bands in the parks to check for those who are staying at SOG, at least as of about 2 months ago when I was there and I doubt the reservation systems would be integrated anytime soon. So make sure you keep your bus pass with you.

 

[Wonder05]

Anyone do a split stay? Does it screw with your 60 fast pass+
Or ADR's? And how difficult is it to get 30 day FP+ and ADR's?

We stayed years ago but that was before FP+ took over
And the only ride you couldn't get was Toy Story.

 

[nittanyliongirl02]

Perhaps this is on here somewhere, but how do the tickets work? More then likely we will be buying tickets from MWR on post, but can I still link them to magic bands??

 

[livbeatles]

Perhaps this is on here somewhere, but how do the tickets work? More then likely we will be buying tickets from MWR on post, but can I still link them to magic bands??

Yup! When you buy your tickets, link the voucher code to your My Disney Experience app so you can book FP+ at the 30 day mark. Then, when you arrive at WDW and go to the ticket window to exchange your vouchers, they will give you a hard ticket. You can either use this ticket or buy a magicband and link it (through your MDE account). The magicband will have a product code on the back that you can enter. It's easy to do via the app, or they even offer to link for you at the shops.

 

[nittanyliongirl02]

Yup! When you buy your tickets, link the voucher code to your My Disney Experience app so you can book FP+ at the 30 day mark. Then, when you arrive at WDW and go to the ticket window to exchange your vouchers, they will give you a hard ticket. You can either use this ticket or buy a magicband and link it (through your MDE account). The magicband will have a product code on the back that you can enter. It's easy to do via the app, or they even offer to link for you at the shops.

Thank you for the info! Is it a complete pain to exchange the vouchers? Sorry for all the questions, we've never stayed here before!

 

[livbeatles]

Thank you for the info! Is it a complete pain to exchange the vouchers? Sorry for all the questions, we've never stayed here before!

Exchanging the vouchers is easy (though I should really use the phrase activation for more clarity, I guess). We've just gone to the Ticket and Transportation Center after arrival and done it there. They will check the military id of the sponsor at this point, as well id of those using the tickets.

Now that they've changed the security points for the TTC, we might combine our activation into a trip around on the resort monorail loop, stopping at MK, or do it while at Disney Springs. Though we'll likely just end up back at the TTC!

Not sure if you know the militarydisneytips website, but he's fantastic at breaking the processes down!

http://www.militarydisneytips.com/b...isney-armed-forces-salute-theme-park-tickets/

 

[mog]

Anyone do a split stay? Does it screw with your 60 fast pass+
Or ADR's? And how difficult is it to get 30 day FP+ and ADR's?

We stayed years ago but that was before FP+ took over
And the only ride you couldn't get was Toy Story.

ADRs you can make at 180 days no matter what - it doesn't have to do with tickets or resort. We have had pretty good luck making fastpasses at 30 days.

 

[mog]

Donghey go

Keep your green & white bus pass with you as that is how you show that you are staying at SOG and the dates are valid - they can't scan the bands in the parks to check for those who are staying at SOG, at least as of about 2 months ago when I was there and I doubt the reservation systems would be integrated anytime soon. So make sure you keep your bus pass with you.

Do they give you one per person now? They used to only give about 2 per room but we have 5 people in our room & may not always stay together. So each person would have to have their own bus pass I guess.

 

[JKMastalski]

We are doing a split stay and heading over to the Boardwalk after our SOG stay.... is it the easiest to call an uber? I know the new Minnie Lyft Vans service the Boardwalk, but not sure if they will be able to pick us up at SOG?

 

[marauder]

We are doing a split stay and heading over to the Boardwalk after our SOG stay.... is it the easiest to call an uber? I know the new Minnie Lyft Vans service the Boardwalk, but not sure if they will be able to pick us up at SOG?

As of right now they haven't announced whether the Minnie Vans will ever service the non-Disney resorts on Disney property. If I were you, I would assume they aren't until something comes out that says differently. I was going to wait to download either Uber or Lyft waiting on an announcement until I saw a Groupon for $10 for $20 worth of Uber. That sort of sealed it.

 

[JKMastalski]

As of right now they haven't announced whether the Minnie Vans will ever service the non-Disney resorts on Disney property. If I were you, I would assume they aren't until something comes out that says differently. I was going to wait to download either Uber or Lyft waiting on an announcement until I saw a Groupon for $10 for $20 worth of Uber. That sort of sealed it.

Ok thats what I kind of figured! We may end up renting a car for a couple of days, so if thats the case, we can transfer the luggage. Thanks!!!

 

[jeff_h]

Do they give you one per person now? They used to only give about 2 per room but we have 5 people in our room & may not always stay together. So each person would have to have their own bus pass I guess.

When you check in, they should ask for the number of people in each room that are age 18 or older, and these are the ones that will get the passes - but each pass will say something like "2 Adult, 2 Children" or whatever the mix happens to be in that room, and so just make sure you go as a group that is covered by the pass onto a ride during EMH, but we just went with a group of 12 (9 of which were under 18) and we didn't run into any issues by the CMs during EMH as we said "Shades of Green" and showed the pass and they quickly waved us through.

 

[msteffen]

Has anyone had any experience being on a wait list for reservations? Wanting to book in Feb. 2018 and only 2 days of our 4 are available, so we booked the 2 and are on the waiting list for the other 2. Just curious how often people on the list get a reservation. Thanks for any info

 

[PSULion]

FYI- I was at SOG yesterday and spoke to a seemingly well informed cast member. He said there was a problem with the contracts, and the scheduled refurb is definitely postponed. He said it also made way for "a bigger and better plan." He said originally it was going to be new paint and carpets in the rooms.... now they're "blowing it all up and starting freash on something exciting."

Whatever that all means! Sounds like big changes may be coming (and maybe periods of limited availability?) but won't affect those of us traveling this fall.

 

[marauder]

I just hope my room next week that is supposed to be in Magnolia Wing is livable. Last time we went to Shades several years ago our room was scheduled to be remodeled soon after we left and the beds were horrible and you could tell they let the maintenance go because why do maintenance when you are going to remodel the room in a couple weeks. That caused us to stay at actual Disney hotels the last two times we went (and the fact we could get free Disney Dining also helped.)

 

[sharonmickey]

Has anyone had any experience being on a wait list for reservations? Wanting to book in Feb. 2018 and only 2 days of our 4 are available, so we booked the 2 and are on the waiting list for the other 2. Just curious how often people on the list get a reservation. Thanks for any info

We reserved rooms in the spring for this fall. SOG was at capacity by the time we booked the last room so we were on the waitlist. I kept checking and a few weeks later rooms opened up. I was able to call and get the second room for all the nights we wanted.

 

[firstwdw]

FYI- I was at SOG yesterday and spoke to a seemingly well informed cast member. He said there was a problem with the contracts, and the scheduled refurb is definitely postponed. He said it also made way for "a bigger and better plan." He said originally it was going to be new paint and carpets in the rooms.... now they're "blowing it all up and starting freash on something exciting."

Whatever that all means! Sounds like big changes may be coming (and maybe periods of limited availability?) but won't affect those of us traveling this fall.

Do you happen to know when the projected start date is or is that all still being figured out still?

 

[nittanyliongirl02]

Can anyone tell me how difficult it is to transfer luggage? I am considering bookending our October trip to SOG with rooms through WDW, but don't know about transferring luggage. I would first need to transfer from the WDW resort to SOG, and then SOG to the WDW resort. Thanks!

 

[bdcp]

Can anyone tell me how difficult it is to transfer luggage? I am considering bookending our October trip to SOG with rooms through WDW, but don't know about transferring luggage. I would first need to transfer from the WDW resort to SOG, and then SOG to the WDW resort. Thanks!

You have to move your luggage yourself, via cab or some private transportation. SOG is not part of WDW, except that it sits on property and they extend the use of EMH but that's about it.

We just called and since we'll be there for two of the days that they're having the 15% off room and breakfast, we grabbed that.

 

[marauder]

At SOG right now so if anyone has any specific questions, feel free to ask and I will see what I can do.